The City of Padua and Enel Open Fiber (EOF) have signed the first agreement that will allow fiber optic cables to be laid across the entire city. Enel Open Fiber is he the Enel Group company formed recently to deploy ultra-broadband infrastructure throughout Italy.

The Enel Open Fiber Plan for the City of Padua provides for 50% of premises to be covered by June 2017 and 80% by May 2018, for a total of about 116,000 premises being wired up, approximately 560 km of underground cables and around 210 km of overhead cables. The fiber optics, which can support download and upload speeds of 1 Gbps, will be brought to customers’ homes via the Fiber to the Home (FTTH) method. Cable laying operations will benefit from the support of the City of Padua to ensure speedy completion of the work.

“The company will invest around 30 million euros in order to equip the city with an infrastructure crucial to making Padua a real smart city,” said smart city councilor Matteo Cavatton.“

The administration meanwhile will coordinate all cabling operations. The installation of the fiber optics will see, in large part, the use of existing below surface service infrastructure and cable ducts. Small worksites will be opened where their use isn’t possible.

“EOF plans to create a super-fast broadband fiber optic telecommunications network for Padua, at the same time handling its operation and maintenance, as well as offering, on non-discriminatory technical and financial conditions, access rights to the network, once finalized, to all operators that request them.

In this early stage of the partnership, EOF has entered into separate contracts with the main operators in Italy concerning the cabling of the first 10 cities provided for in its ultra-broadband development plan. The agreements provide for the operators to activate customers on the network that EOF will create, guaranteeing coverage for at least 80% of each city’s premises within the time frame indicated in the roll-out plan. EOF will also handle the operation and maintenance of the new infrastructure. Further agreements with other operators are currently being finalized.

Enel has created a new business unit to cover international internet connectivity, to complement its domestic operation, Enel Open Fiber (EOF), which was established earlier this year to deploy ultra-broadband networks which can be leased to telecoms service providers. It’s new ‘Global Fiber Optic Infrastructures’ division has been created to devise strategies and implement business models for the Group’s global development of fiber optic infrastructure.

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